


Upwards

by purple_pyro



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Shambali Monastery, and an OC of little consequence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 14:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10900956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_pyro/pseuds/purple_pyro
Summary: It is standard practice to assign personality traits to artificial intelligence. Zenyatta received the contradictory cocktail of extroverted, introspective, strong-willed, calm, and curious.





	Upwards

People quickly found that, unless programmed with personalities, AI were incredibly, achingly boring. At the beginning of the golden age of artificial intelligence, it became standard practice to assign a handful of character traits to each one that would be expanded upon to make them more interesting to work with. The habit continued with the development of omnics, and even after the crisis, developers still used a randomized persona matrix to make them a little more unique.

Zenyatta received the contradictory cocktail of extroverted, introspective, strong-willed, calm, and curious.

“Are you sure ‘troublemaker’ isn’t on your list?” Sister Minyatta asks dryly, watching him shimmy up a tree.

“If you would let a lack of lower branches keep you from helping, you should add ‘easily discouraged’ to yours!” He replies, careful not to jostle the injured mother bird that is nestled in a sack around his waist. “I don’t see how I am making trouble.”

Minyatta laughs. “Of course you don’t. If you would like, I can share my visual recording of this event to Mondatta to see his opinion.” She expects him to pause at their master’s name, perhaps slide back down the trunk and consult their fellow students as she had initially suggested. Zenyatta doesn't falter.

“I am almost there. I hope in my victory that you will come to agree.” 

Minyatta shakes her head but doesn’t remove her view from Zenyatta for a moment. He does indeed reach the tree limb where the rosefinch’s nest is, and bracing himself against a higher branch, he squats down and moves in closer step by step. Despite his earlier bravado, Minyatta can tell he is shaking slightly by the tremble of the leaves, and she adjusts to stand directly below him. Zenyatta scoops the bird from his satchel and lays her on top of four spotted, sky-blue eggs. The omnic had kept a harmony orb on her sprained wing for the duration of the entire climb, and the finch shakes out her tawny feathers and newly-healed limb. The joy is evident in Zenyatta’s posture, which shifts enough that he loses his balance. 

Minyatta tries to catch him, but the momentum of a fifteen-foot drop pushes her onto the ground as well. Zenyatta sheepishly offers her a hand up, and she takes it before straightening his robes and lifting his arms to check for dents.

“You need not fuss over me,” he says.

“Clearly, you have demonstrated otherwise!” Minyatta huffs. “Six years old and scratching up your faceplate.”

Zenyatta shakes her off. Yes, he is new to the monastery. No, he will not be chided for his youth. “It is of my own consequence. Have I not achieved something great?”

“You use the word too broadly.”

“Is there nothing greater than the balance of nature?”

“You cannot speak of balance after falling from such a height.”

Zenyatta grows exasperated. “I have done something good! No damage has occurred, but I would wear it proudly anyway. Connections are sacrifices, but they are worthy of what we give.”

Minyatta is silent, then resolved. “You are correct, brother. It is in danger that we learn, and I can think of no greater purpose than yours.” She looks above to the finch nest, where the mother has settled down. “Your energy is strong. You will always find a cause wherever you go. I hope they are all worth fighting for.”

Zenyatta relaxes and folds his hands. “Every one is.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 15 minutes at 11:30 at night because I only get inspired at the most inconvenient of times. I hope this is at least decent. Call it a warm-up for the things I have actually planned.


End file.
